


Human

by quicksilver (quicksilvermalec)



Series: OUAT Rewatch Specials [2]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Episode: s01e12 Skin Deep, F/M, Fix-It, heteros
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-21 19:15:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30026559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quicksilvermalec/pseuds/quicksilver
Summary: The Beast leans toward her. “Why did you come back?” he asks, slow and deliberate, his breath ghosting over her pale face.“I wasn't going to,” she confesses, leaning forward, matching him. “But then... something changed my mind.”She can see the moment the realization dawns on his face. He looks lighter, like some great burden he’d forgotten he was carrying has been lifted from his wiry frame. She tilts her head and her lips meet his, and the moment they touch is electric and beautiful.“Oh,” he whispers once they part. His face starts to change, the green tinge of his skin beginning to melt away. He keeps his eyes closed, like he’s afraid. “What's happening?”“Kiss me again, it's working,” she says eagerly, placing her hand on his face to hold him close.
Relationships: Belle/Rumplestiltskin | Mr. Gold
Series: OUAT Rewatch Specials [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2208861
Kudos: 8





	Human

**Author's Note:**

> Well this is a series now. Just moments that catch my attention. Be prepared; I've got two oneshots for 1x21 on their way. 
> 
> Enjoy!

“Oh, you're back already,” says Rumpelstiltskin as she carries her basket into his main hall. “Good. Good thing. I'm, uh... I'm nearly out of straw.”

“Hmm,” Belle replies, unconvinced. She crosses to the wheel and puts down her basket. “Come on, you're happy that I'm back.”

“I'm not unhappy,” he concedes. She laughs.

“And, uh, you promised me a story.”

He feigns innocence. “Did I?”

“Mm-hmm!” she confirms. She removes the thread from his hand and sits down beside him. “Tell me about your son.”

His voice is hesitant as he begins to speak. “Uh... I lost him. There's nothing more to tell, really.” He doesn’t make eye contact, opting instead to look down at his hands, folded in his lap.

“And since then, you've loved no one, and no one has loved you,” Belle says, not so much asking as stating fact. She hesitates, decides not to add ‘is that right?’

The Beast leans toward her. “Why did you come back?” he asks, slow and deliberate, his breath ghosting over her pale face.

“I wasn't going to,” she confesses, leaning forward, matching him. “But then... something changed my mind.” 

She can see the moment the realization dawns on his face. He looks lighter, like some great burden he’d forgotten he was carrying has been lifted from his wiry frame. She tilts her head and her lips meet his, and the moment they touch is electric and beautiful.

“Oh,” he whispers once they part. His face starts to change, the green tinge of his skin beginning to melt away. He keeps his eyes closed, like he’s afraid. “What's happening?”

“Kiss me again, it's working,” she says eagerly, placing her hand on his face to hold him close.

This time, when he speaks, his voice sounds human. It’s less shrill, less detached, and has an air of something unmistakable and unquantifiable, something that makes him a man. “What is?”

“Any curse can be broken,” Belle whispers. He stares uncomprehendingly at her, but she presses her lips to his again, and the longer she kisses him the more she can feel him becoming more like the man she knows in her heart he once was, the man he can be again.

He pulls away. “Who put you up to this?” he whispers, not letting her fully away from him and at the same time fighting the urge to _run_.

“No one ‘put me up to it’,” she insists. “I met a woman on the road, she told me you could be a man again with the kiss of true love. And you _are_ a man, or becoming one, which means it’s true. You love me too, don’t you Rumpelstiltskin?”

He nods slightly. “I do, but I can’t—no one, _no one_ , could _ever_ love a monster like me,” he hisses in her ear, pulling away again. She grabs his wrist.

“You aren’t a monster. And I do love you. I swear it.”

He watches her for a good, long moment, then sighs. Everything seeps out of him at once. “If you swear it,” he whimpers. She feels her face crack into a smile of relief and joy and she kisses him again, and this time, he doesn’t fight back.


End file.
